संख्या
The next map of yoga we will explore here is the Sankhya Philosophy, which maps the terrain from the unified field of awareness to our experience as individuals evolving into knowing ourselves and our place in the infinite universe . We can use it as a guide when we traverse the landscape of the material realm seeking evolution, liberation and peace. We can also use it as a guide as we carve out a pathway for the rivers of pure consciousness to irrigate the material world that we inhabit. Translating into ideas of enumeration and rational decision making it appears to be a highly analytical discipline disconnected from our day to day experience on the mat. But that is far from true. Right discipline in practice creates a crucible for personal actualization. It paves the way from a life lead astray by every passing influence to alive of personal sovereignty – aligned with the will of the infinite, limitless omnipotent loving intelligence that goes by many names.
For an image of the map please see this website Sankhya.
The journey of begins with awareness of our senses – direct experience of our awareness touching the physical world via the physical body and ascends through the individual mind, the collective mind, the wisdom mind through the experience of pure duality (me and you) and then in some maps to a unified field of consciousness beyond that duality. We will take the map beyond duality to the unified field.
The heart of healing exists in the unified field. The heart of yoga (which is a dualistic discipline) is experienced in communion with the unified field.
/*Whereas the koshas or sheaths (the five dimensions of you) are really about the individual, the Sankhya philosophy is about reorienting ourselves into our unique place as an individual within the cosmos. . The practice of yoga asana leads us directly towards, aligns us with and supports us in staying steadfastly and joyfully engaged in this ever changing process of reorientation. /
The practice we will be exploring is using asana to bring awareness to the senses, our actions, the general qualities of nature, the individual mind, the cosmic mind, our sense of separation and yoga or unification.
As we explore these maps we gain the ability to attain mastery in asana, meditation and life.
How can we start to consider this? It helps to explore a new sense of our physicality. Some approaches to yoga work with transcending the physical body, but to really understand ourselves as living as physical bodies from a yoga perspective – we start with physical awareness. When we start our yoga practice we are entombed in conditioning about our physical bodies- that the body is shameful or exalted or it drives us or it pulls us down. The flavors of conditioning about the body are infinite. Open Vogue, or Grey’s Anatomy or unpack your experience of gym class in the second grade. Conditioning is subtle – Habits are generated in our unconscious.
What we do want to do is to open our field of awareness as we practice. Just by giving up preferences and practicing observation we will come to know our conditioning and we may choose to leave it behind. What thought arises as we tumble out of tree posture – or come down with a thud out of headstand. We will break down some of these explorations in asana as we walk through the map in the coming months – but for now you can get ready, just by beginning to notice what arises on and off the mat in a very general sense.
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Natalie Ullmann 